Online Socialising in Young People Accessing Mental Health Services.
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Online socialising and problematic internet use in young people accessing mental health services - investigating the roles of social connectedness, basic needs satisfaction, multiple group memberships, and fears of negative evaluation.
IRAS ID
229992
Contact name
Alice Barber
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of East Anglia
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 8 months, 25 days
Research summary
This study hopes to find out about the possible benefits and risks of online socialising for young people with mental health problems. There has been a lot of research looking at online socialising in young people without mental health problems. This has shown that online socialising can help people to feel close to others, but it can also increase feelings of loneliness, as people may spend less time face to face with friends. Research has also found that some people feel unable to control the amount of time they spend online, and this can cause them distress or problems in their day to day life. It was suggested that these risks and benefits may be seen more strongly in people with mental health problems, but this has not yet been looked into.
This study hopes to fill this gap. It aims to recruit 35 young people, aged between 14 and 25, who are accessing support from Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust Youth Services. They will be asked to complete questionnaires about their online socialising and mental health, in an appointment taking approximately one and a half hours. This data will help us find out what these young people may be gaining from their online socialising, and look at possible problems linked with their internet use. Their responses will also be compared with a sample of young people who are not accessing mental health services, to help us draw conclusions about possible differences between these groups. It is hoped that this study will help to promote more research in this topic. Over time, it is hoped that more research about the risks and benefits of online socialising will help us to better support young people with mental health problems, who often spend a great deal of time online.REC name
East Midlands - Derby Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
18/EM/0034
Date of REC Opinion
27 Mar 2018
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion